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Once again we went to Viena by bus. 70 km separate us from Bratislava, so this was a short journey. When we arrived it was already a good time to eat and that’s what we did. The Schönnbrunn palace was packed with tourists and no more tickets were available for the day, so we bought them for the following day and strolled around the Christmas market where the traditional Viennese cookies and Christmas decorations. So cold but sooooo beautiful! After checking in with Thomas - our make up breakfast specialist host - we headed to the city centre where it was still possible to visit St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the pedestrian area with the Opera House and the Sacher Hotel with the fancy butler and the Sacher Torte fans queuing outside.
At eight we met Dorothea and her husband in a nice traditional restaurant with delicious Austrian food!!!Read more

We squeezed in a final pre-Christmas market on the morning of the 24th. It was the last day of St Stephansplatz market and the adjacent St Stephans Cathedral had been an impressive sight when we'd passed it on the tube, so we were looking forward to visiting that too.

The combination of towering gothic spires and a mosaic tiled roof made this Cathedral stand out and we paid the €4.50 entry fee to climb its south tower.
It was exciting to see glimpses of Vienna from a different perspective through the small slit windows as we climbed the spiralling stone stairway. However we were disappointed when we reached the watchman's tower half way up and weren't allowed to go any further! There were views in 4 directions through windows but they were limited. Unfortunately we may have been spoiled by some of the great steeple-top panoramic views we were treated to in Germany!

Following a look through the traditional market and a brief stroll around the wider area, we returned to our pitch to ready our small space for Christmas day. We met midnight with a bottle of bubbly and a small present to each other.

On Christmas day we relaxed in the van for the whole day, only going out to take Poppy. We'd had to be careful and not buy any presents for each other that would take up too much space. Our main present to each other was a new camera that didn't need separate lenses. The functions on the old one had been failing, the internal sensor was scratched and the different lenses took up a lot of space and weight.

We really enjoyed texting, calling and Skyping friends and family later in the day. A big part of Christmas for us is being around them, if not on the day itself, then in the lead up to it. It somehow felt less Christmassy not being able to do this (that and the lack of mince pies, crackers, Christmas cake and pud!)

We are glad to have the opportunity to experience Christmas in a foreign country and we had a lovely day, but part of our journey is about gaining a different perspective, challenging and sometimes changing or consolidating our ideas of what is important to us. We are VERY much looking forward to spending time with lots of people next year!Read more

There was no more snow when we awoke the next morning but what had fallen the previous night had stayed. We waited until it was nearly dark before setting off on the U-bahn to Vienna's largest Christmas Market. Emerging from the underground station we each inhaled sharply - it was a winter wonderland! Gorgeous fluffy snowflakes were falling all around and had layed a thick white coat on the ground, trees and buildings. It was even better than we had hoped for! We made our way through the small park at the back of the imposing Rathaus (City Hall) and were greeted with the warm lights, smell of glühwein and sound of a children's carousel that lay at the edge of Vienna Christmas World and Market. 150 stalls were arranged in the Rathaus grounds and decorations lit up the snow laden park, whose paths were lined with elegant wrought iron benches. Not only was the park decorated, but it had an ice skating rink and pathways that skaters of all ages were enjoying.

Skirting round the edge of the market we came to the brightly lit main entrance archway, over which we could see the illuminated Rathaus in all its glory. It was a stunning building, tall and elegant with pointed towers reaching up to the snowy sky. The bare trees on the boulevard fronting the Rathaus grounds had been wrapped in fairy lights. It was all so beautiful, we were both feeling rather overwhelmed. Vicky reacted by trying to photograph everything in sight and Will had a glüwien!

After perusing the stalls and treating ourselves to a little red bauble with a snow scene and 'Vienna' painted on it, Vicky's fingers were getting painfully cold. Looking around for somewhere to warm up, we saw people shuffling in and out of the Rathaus. After negotiating the beautifully smooth but treacherously slippery marble steps, a lovely warm scene was revealed to us. The inside of the hall was lit up and decorated and a cafe was serving hot drinks. Children were decorating gingerbread and being encouraged to post letters to Santa. We settled down to a warming punch, hot chocolate and sascher torte which reinvigorated us before we finished the rest of the market and negotiated the underground system to get back to Poppy and the van.

Our time at this Christmas market had been a magical experience and one we will remember for a very long time! If you'd like to see a short video filmed at the market visit our channel at: https://youtu.be/yRA8zznywuIRead more

It's my first day in Vienna and it's freezing cold. There is leftover snow on the floor, and my face actually turned red. I am black so it takes extreme weather for me to go red. I checked into the hotel and then went to explore a church. After this I went to the Christmas market on Rathausplatz. Over here I tried some Christmas punsch which was VERY strong. I had 2 and literally felt my head spinning. So I took the tram andheaded off to "knoedel manufaktur" which is a dumpling shop. I tried the knoedel with pork and sauerkraut. It was nice...but not as nice as Polish pierogi.

People in Vienna are not very friendly. It's a shame because the city seems beautiful. I cannot tell whether it is just the way they are...or whether there are some other "factors" that are triggering their behaviour. I need another day before making a judgement.Read more

There is definitely an issue with race in Austria. I don't want to spend paragraphs talking about what happened. However, I will definitely make a blog post about it. But for now I will share what I did today.

I started the day with a visit to the Naschmarkt which is an extremely long market. Then I went to wander around the schonbrunn palace gardens. It was too cold so I sat in the cafe and had a "wiener melange" (traditional Viennese coffee). To be honest...it was nothing special. It tasted like a latte and it definitely wasn't strong.

It didn't feel as if I did much today but I must have because my feet are hurting so bad. After the coffee I watched a strudel making demonstration...and then went to the natural history museum. It's the best one that I have ever seen.

For dinner I tried schnitzel. It looks massive but it's actuallly very light. When I saw it my first thought was "how am I going to eat this?". I did struggle but that is probably because I ate early...and ate a lot during the day in general.Read more

According to what we've read, Austrians traditionally celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve, when they share a meal of Carp and open presents. For festive food we had decided just to see what was in the shops. We'd been told about an area outside Vienna city centre that sold a lot of local and organic produce so we took the U-Bahn then a bus to get there. We'd had the impression there was a farmers market, but all we could find was a small food shop. Despite its size, it was a quality establishment that sold organic and local food, so we picked up some veg and wine before making our way back.

Later on we walked up to our local suburban cluster of shops and visited the butcher. There didn't seem to be any one meat that stood out like turkey would in the UK, so we bought a couple of duck breasts and some other bits and bobs.

After taking the van out to top up on gas, we did a supermarket shop for the remaining items. It felt strange coming back to the van with no crackers, Christmas cake, pudding or mince pies. We wanted to experience a Christmas outside the UK but we'll certainly appreciate these seasonal staples all the more when we come back to Britain next year!

Van life has brought a lot of improvements and some amazing highs but it also has its lows. The temperature had been sub zero for days and we'd noticed an icicle forming under the back of the van; it had actually got so long as to join with the ground at our previous stopover! We'd been making the most if the electric hookup by mainly using an electric fan heater instead of the gas central heating. When we returned to the stopover, the waste water tank wouldn't open for emptying because it had frozen shut. We placed the fan heater under the van, started the engine and put the central heating on to get some hot air through the nearby vent in an effort to defrost it. After more than an hour of this it still wasn't defrosted and we heard the water pump turn on and a wheezing sound from near the hot water tank. While Will was outside discovering our emergency water container had leaked and the water frozen to the boot floor and the icicle we'd seen before had been formed by the hot water outlet pipe freezing up, and that the pressure had built up to the point that the system was blowing water out inside the boot, Vicky was inside discovering a slick of water emerging from under the bunk inside the living area. We spent the rest of the night with the heating up high to try and defrost the waste water and the pump switched off apart from when we were using it in order to avoid leakage from the hot water tank. It was all sorted out by midday the following day but we were very thankful to be at a site with all the facilities we needed. We may need to rethink our plan to visit Norway in winter!Read more

I had a Xmas in Switzerland over 10 years ago and it was to be honest rather dull. Not much joie de vivre or brio. No tat and coloured lights and certainly no turkey pigs in blankets or as you said any identifiable Xmas items...

We have four whole days in Vienna so today we had a relaxed morning before catching a train on the subway into Karlsplatz one stop from the town centre. We had lunch at Naschmarkt, Vienna's most popular market which has existed since the 16th Century. Located at the Wienzeile over the Wien River, it is about 1.5 kilometres long and has an amazing range of fresh fruit and vegetables, exotic herbs, cheese, baked goods such as bread, meats, and seafood. There are also many small restaurants and stalls selling clothes and other souvenirs.
We walked around OldTown for the rest of the day and night and saw just a fraction of its beautiful buildings. It was a surprise at every turn - we just couldn't stop ourselves going through just one more arch to see what was on the other side even when we were freezing (yes freezing - caught us by surprise), and hungry!Read more

A night of culture followed our bus touring day - a Vienna Mozart Concert at Musikverein Goldener Saal (Golden Hall) - yes even Alan! The music was wonderful. The Concert Hall, home the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra, is considered one of the finest concert halls in the world due to its highly regarded acoustics.Read more

Today we took the bus line to Burgenland, the easternmost and least populous state of Austria. It was another chance to see more of Austria. The drive went through wine country and farms and little quaint villages. We got to see the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt, the capital of the Burgenland state. It was constructed in the late 13th century. For many years musician and composer Joseph Haydn lived and worked at the court of the Esterházy family in Eisenstadt. Rozzie may have been a little excited about today's trip 😊 to see Hayden's house and where he lived and worked. Also on our program today was a stop at Lake Neusiedl which is the largest endorheic (closed drainage basin) lake in Central Europe, straddling the Austrian–Hungarian border. The lake is known as the "Sea of the Viennese", as it offers sailing and windsurfing at a reasonable distance from Vienna. Bordering the western shore of the lake is the town of Rust. As well as being known for its wines, Rust is also known for having a stork nest on the chimney of most of its houses. A special "Association for the Protection of the White Stork" has been successfully conserving and creating feeding areas and taking care of nests. The stork population has stabilised over the past few years and in the summer months approx. 15 pairs breed on top of the chimneys of the old houses where they rear approximately 32 young storks.Read more

Last day in Vienna. Went to Schonbrunn Palace. Although we didn't tour the inside of the Palace, just walking around its vast grounds was enough. We got fantastic views of Vienna from the Gloriette.
We then took a boat ride on the Danube canal to the Freudenau lock and the yacht harbour "Marina Vienna". Tomorrow we head to Budapest.Read more